Multiple Cities Are Sinking Across The World

The scientific term is land subsidence, which–at least to me– sounds less scary.

Land subsidence is primarily caused by groundwater pumping and water system compaction, but it’s exacerbated by rising sea levels. Those rising sea levels come from melting ice sheets linked to climate change. So, yes, this is a climate change issue, not just the weight of skyscrapers and urban life. 

NASA’s latest research projects that sea levels in California are projected to rise between 6 and 14.5 inches by 2050, while some parts of the San Francisco Bay area are steadily sinking at a rate of more than .4 inches a year.

In other words, “the land is moving down faster than the sea itself is going up,” lead author Marin Govorcin of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California shared. 

Rising sea levels threaten all coastal cities, but only some are currently faced with rapid land subsidence. For instance, Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city, the UN climate panel estimates up to 50 percent of the historic city could go the way of Atlantis by 2050. 

Last year, Chinese social media erupted over a study published by researchers from the University of East Anglia (UAE) and Virginia Tech, which reported that 45% of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3 millimeters per year. In 2023, more than 3,000 residents in the northern city of Tianjin were evacuated from their 25-story apartment building due to what the Tianjin government called a “sudden geological disaster.”

Land subsidence is particularly bad in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Considered to be the fastest-sinking city in the world, it’s predicted to be nearly half underwater by 2050. In response, the Indonesian government sank $33B into a renewable energy-focused project to relocate the capital to Nusantara on the undeveloped island of Borneo. 

While it might be too late for cities like Jakarta, policy changes in sinking cities can make all the difference. Japan was able to curb land subsidence when it banned groundwater extraction in the 1970s. Land subsidence has since plateaued.